The Time of Their Lives
by Principles of Magic
Summary: CHAPTER 4 UP! James can't wait for seventh year...but can he survive sixth year, summer and Lily Evans? The Marauders are at it again! You know 'em, you love 'em, so join 'em as they have the time of their lives.
1. Tutoring James

**Disclaimer: I do not own these characters or Hogwarts—they are the creation of JK Rowling.**

Chapter 1: Tutoring James

James had just come from his career advisories with Professor Flitwick, in shambles that his future as an Auror was in jeopardy. He found Sirius Black leaning against an old oak and paid no attention to the fact that he was fully absorbed with something else across the lawn. James looked over at his friend with utmost urgency. He was thrown off that Sirius was too busy eying the raven-haired Gryffindor, Alice Finchley, who sat among her following of sixth years.

"Eh, mate?" No response.

"Sirius…" he began, but still the black haired boy stared off.

"Sirius?" he tried again, with no luck. James was getting annoyed. He had something very important to tell his best mate.

"Sirius?"

"Shh…James…"

"Sirius?"

"James can't you see I'm—"

"SIRIUS!"

"_WHAT IS IT?_" Sirius turned so quickly and glared at James with such infuriation that James dared not speak up now...as this was really going to set him off.

"Sirius," he began slowly. "This is serious."

James had barely a second to duck before Black lunged at him and began to chase a laughing James across the lawn. The two stopped as Sirius caught up with James by the black lake.

"Okay, okay. Don't kill me." James panting, holding his pounding heart in place. "Look, I just got back from my career advice session with Flitwick"—Sirius perked up, curious—"and he said I need to pull up my Charms grade. He doesn't see me getting my N.E.W.T. next year if I can't keep up. He noticed how I was struggling with the _Striking Jinx_." he uttered the words as if they were curses, narrowing his eyes in disgust.

"Having trouble?" Sirius laughed.

"Listen, Padfoot." James spoke gruffly. "You know I'm not an idiot. But it's true I haven't been paying attention lately in that class." James gave a far-off, sideways look. "Can you help me catch up? Can I borrow your notes? I've already asked Remus, but you know how he doesn't approve of….well you know how he calls everything cheating." James rolled his eyes, looking utterly forlorn.

"Sorry mate," Sirius said, placing his arm around Potter. "But did you actually think I have been taken notes either?" Sirius grinned, but stopped, seeing James's crestfallen face.

"Oh hell, why don't you just ask Evans?"

"Because she hates to even be in the same room as me." James confessed with a sigh as the two Gryffindors began to head back inside the castle.

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Lily has finally agreed to tutor James, but mostly because Remus was accompanying James and she had complete faith in here fellow prefect to keep Potter's raging hormones in check. Lily had just come down from the shelf, having found a large book on basic spells produced by the Room as soon as she had mentally requested it.

"Okay," she began as she climbed down the ladder slowly. Striking spells are…." she flipped through the pages to the table of contents. "Here. Right. It says a simple spell to knock down an opponent is the Striking Jinx; can also be channeled to push objects. Use a stabbing motion and say _Advertum_."

James was already on his feet. "Sounds easy enough. Okay, Room. Set up some targets."

At by command, several potions bottles made of warped glass in various colors appeared on the table's edge. James took three large steps back and aimed him wand. Remus, still sitting at the table, quickly looked from the bottles to James and began to say something, but before he could— _"Advertum!"_

The next moment, Lily gave a scream as James and Remus began to pick themselves out of a cloud of dust that was swirling around the destroyed table and the glittering shards of glass.

"My god, Potter, can you say overkill?"

"Yeah," Remus coughed. "I was going to tell you this spell has various intensities that are controlled by various degrees of stress in the incantation, but you went and blew me up first." He coughed as he finally pulled himself up. "I couldn't warn you".

Lily was repairing the table and simply magicked the broken glass shards away, relying on the Room to replace the bottles. "The book says nothing about the stress we need to say the incantation with to simply move the bottles," she glared at James, "and not blow them up."

Clearly, Remus had decided that trial and error was the best approach because he took up his wand where James had been the first time. With less of a jabbing motion and a quiet "_Advertum_," the yellow jet shot from his wand in a thin flash of light. They all looked disappointed the next second as the middle bottle laid in pieces on the tabletop.

"Well" said Remus, recalling his wand and sitting back down. "At least the table's still intact."

"Lily," James piped up, "it's your turn. Perhaps this_ is_ a job for a girl."

Lily glared at him. "What? Like washing your shirts and checking your homework isn't enough? I don't see why I'm even trying to help you. You won't tell me what you are up too and at worst I am helping you in your constant quest for _tomfoolery_."  
"At worst." James smiled, coolly conjuring Lily from thin air as Remus rolled his eyes.

"Haha, Lily. Aren't you glad I'm here?"

And Lily fell for his hazel eyes and swooned for his careless innocence and smiled back.

She gave the spell a try, but this time the bottles rattled and did nothing. James tried again, blowing up the table again, and in turn each tried to send the bottled gently across the tabletop. They tried various stresses on various syllables, different jabbing motions, singing the incantation. At best, one bottle would move a millimeter. At worst, the three found themselves blown off their feet. They were all very frustrated after several hours.

"This is ridiculous! I'll move the bloody bottle myself!" James yelled, throwing the bottle against the wall. It shattered in shimmering glassy dust,

"Why are you so angry? This is obviously a very tricky spell, Potter, relax!" James was storming around the Room and aiming spells at the bottles, blasting them to pieces on purpose.

Remus took to repairing the bottles as James broke them. He looked very tired and apologetic. "I'm sorry Lily. James really needs to master this spell and—"

Lily tore in. "That gives him no reason to act like a first year who can't mount a broom! Potter needs some self control—stop blowing up the bloody place with every spell! Look, Remus," she said, hands on hips, "if _I_ can't get this Advertum thing to work, then…."

But just as she said it, the yellow jet shot from her wand and splashed against the large rosy twisted bottled. The three looked at it, and just when they thought it would do nothing, the bottle gently slid three feet across the table, stopping right at the edge.

James was clearly delighted. His wand shot off red sparks and he relished in the shocked look on Lily's face.

"Score, Evans!" He hurtled onto Remus, crushing him in a bear-hug.

"His dream come true," she replied sarcastically. She pocketed her wand as James turned from Remus to her.

"Oi," huffed Remus. "I need to stop accompanying Prongs on his dates."


	2. Beans for Breakfast

**Disclaimer: JKR owns these characters…but we all knew that.**

Chapter 2: Beans for Breakfast

James was eating breakfast in the Great Hall. The enchanted ceiling gave off a warm mist that mimicked the actual weather outside. Sirius was nowhere in sight, but Remus was quietly chomping on toast, reading the Daily Prophet at the table. With each bite of his cereal, James smiled. He was utterly thrilled that he had mastered that Striking Spell. Or, he had to admit, that Lily had, for she was the only one who has succeeded in not blowing something up. Nevertheless, all James had to do was to show old Flit-Wicky this dazzling display of N.E.W.T.-level material, and he was sure to be off probation. He was planning to continue plotting his ingenious plan when Peter came up the run and plopped haphazardly down next to Remus.

"Morning. Has the post…?" But even before the boy could finish, owls swooped in low and dropped letters and parcels on the heads of the awaiting students. Peter must have been expecting something, because he squeaked when a small barn owl dropped a parcel in his eggs.

"Ooh," James cooed. "What has Wormtail gotten himself?"

Peter pulled off the package's brown paper and twine to reveal a brand new book, thick and utterly boring-looking.

Remus finally put down his paper. "Is that the new book by that author who writes about dark wizards?"

"Yes!" Pettigrew squeaked. "I told my mum I was writing a N.E.W.T. written account on Grindelwald and comparing his rise to power and that of this new guy the _Prophet _has been going on about." All three boys eyed the front cover of the_ Prophet_, which told in big black letters:

**New Dark Wizard Arises**

**Should we be concerned? Interview with Albus Dumbledore, pages 5-7**

"So…" Peter continued. "I had to send away for the latest book because the library has almost nothing on the subject." He pointed idly to the _Prophet_.

James sat back in his chair. "All the more reason for us to become Aurors: to save the world, marry the girls of our dreams and live the sweet lives." He took a swig of pumpkin juice, and watched Peter pull something else out of his package. "Ooh, look!"

Peter had received a large box of Bertie Botts Every Flavored Beans. He quickly tore the plastic and opened the box. He looked at Remus hopefully.

"Sorry, it's way too early for those."

"Give me one here." James smirked, and Peter threw a rosy, orange-colored one to him, who threw it casually into his month and bit down once. Hard.

The others looked at him, waiting for him to hurl.

But nothing happened. James smiled and spoke, through the gummy substance he chewed. "Got lucky this time: Tropical fruit." Remus looked relieved, but Peter looked cheated.

"My turn. Give me one here, Moony."

With a tortured sigh, Remus took an innocent-looking bean from the box and handed it to Peter, who held the greenish-brown bean aloft. Remus checked the box and made an odd, strangled noise, loosening his collar as if it were constricting him.

"Ooh, that one is apple—" and Peter ate the bean, chewing feverishly with a great grin on his face.

Not waiting for Remus to finish the name.

"Apple snail, Peter." But by now, Peter knew it too, and went sprinting down the tables and out of the hall, retching as James laughed wildly behind, holding up his goblet of pumpkin juice with a cheer.

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Sirius was alone in the common room. He has lodged himself in a comfortable chair and was feverishly copying notes from Remus's notebook into his own. Suddenly, something made him look up.

"You know, that's technically cheating." The redhead had her hands on her hips, making her looking ever so pouty. Sirius closed both notebooks and smiled condescendingly.

"Remus has the utmost idea of what cheating is, so this," he pointed to the two books, "is not dishonest."

Lily didn't look fooled at all. "It _is_, because I saw you steal that from Mr. Lupin's bag and although I know he probably wouldn't mind because,"—she rolled her eyes—"he always puts up with you and your antics, I, on the other hand, will not." And she snatched away Remus's book and jammed it in her bag. "You're lucky I don't take points from you guys because then Gryffindor would have negative points and we'd never win house cup."

Sirius, never fazed, jammed his own book in his bag and pried himself from the lounge chair, towering over Lily. "That's our prefect Lily, always standing up for the…oh wait, nobody." He dodged a look from Lily, gathering his things. "Come off it, Evans, we'd better get down to breakfast before James eats it all." And in silence, the two left the common room.

Sirius had been wrong. James had not eaten all the breakfast, but was still sipping his pumpkin juice between snickers, and sneaking glances at Peter's abandoned Every Flavored Beans, as the poor boy had yet to return. Remus was first to notice the two Gryffindor additions, as Lily thumped him over the head with his own notebook.

"Oh, _there_ it is," Remus commented as he slid over to allow Lily and Sirius to sit. "Where did you find it?"

"_Sirius_ had it…" And Lily shot daggers at him as he feigned shame. But apparently the worst of his punishment was over, because she slightly edited the truth on her part. "He found it in your dormitory this morning."

Sirius choked on his pumpkin juice and looked at James in amazement, then quickly turned the focus away from himself.

"Yeah, I found Lily hanging back in the common room. Trying to get a glance at James in the morning, I suppose."

Lily made a face that clearly betrayed her intentions. She did not appreciate Sirius's return of her kindness.

James, draining the last of his juice smiled in triumph, rolling his eyes with false-disdain. "Merlin, Evans, you're such a Potter-phile."

Sirius turned from James to Lily, holding some eggs and a bit of sausage in his fork.

"Yeah, and it's disgusting…" he swallowed his forkful, pointing his fork into the negative space between James and Lily. "Disgustingly delicious."

Sirius and James both had to duck as Lily pulled Peter's abandoned book from it's wrappings and swung wildly.

**Haha, these guys are a riot: that's why I love them so much. Please read and review…what do YOU want to see in the next chapters? **

**And special thanks to **alicecullengirl** for her awesome editing skills. Check out her stories, they be wicked. –PoM**


	3. Future Ambitions

**So, you wanted more Remus so here he is….enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Je ne OWN pas cettes characters…merci JK Rowling.**

Chapter 3: Future Ambitions

Many weeks has passed since the morning Peter ate the apple snail bean, Remus got his notebook back and James and Sirius both had been thumped by Lily. Although Lily's tutoring had convinced Flitwick to take James off academic probation, he wasn't out of the frying pan yet. Exams were right around the corner, and after the seventh years, the sixth years were at their highest stress level yet. Believing that they could cover their faults with teamwork, the Gryffindor sixth years had formed a study session one rainy evening in the common room. James and Sirius were sharing the arms of one of the comfy lounge chairs occupied by Lily. Remus and Mary were together by their feet and Peter was across from Lily, a large pile of books in his hands. Frank and Alice were sprawled together to James's right and Lily's friend Emmeline occupied the other chair in front of the fire. The lot had momentarily stopped to laugh at something Peter has said and only now was Lily pausing to round them all up again.

"Really, we are never going to get anything done—" Lily began, before Frank cut in.

"Lily, we've gone through everything at least a dozen times. Charms, Transfiguration, Potions, Herbology…"

"Yeah, and DADA and even bloody History of Magic," James added to Frank's argument.

Lily crossed her arms. "But what about Astronomy, and Runes?"

"Those are classes only you take, Evans," said Sirius, rolling his eyes. "We Aurors don't need all that."

Emmeline came quickly to Lily's defense. "What about Muggle Studies?" she asked firmly, pulling a slim textbook from Peter's pile. They all laughed at that, except Emmeline and Lily, who both shared a look of hurt.

"Now, what in the name of Merlin am I gonna need Muggle Studies for?" Sirius barked from behind his Herbology notes.

They all expected Lily to counter him, but Remus spoke instead, hands stretched behind his head. "Well if your Auror training ever goes awry, I daresay you may find Muggle relations a very rewarding job at the Ministry."

The room fell silent, anxious of Sirius's reaction. He turned all the way around in his seat with a look of utter betrayal, and Emmeline snorted to hold back her oncoming fit of laughter. Sirius rolled his eyes, and Remus threw back his head and laughed.

The common room exploded in laughter, frightening some idling first years sitting by the window.

Sirius slapped Remus on the back with a wink.

And even Lily couldn't help but join in.

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The sixth years left the common room at around midnight, having gotten in an extra hour of Muggle Studies review in after Sirius' remark. The girls waved the boys off to bed, Lily standing by the girl's doorway waiting for Alice and Mary to kiss their boys good night. James looked back hopefully, but Lily had already gone back down to the common room to fulfill her nightly prefect duties and make sure the younger students were all off to bed, too.

However, sleeping was the last thing on any of the boys' minds.

They five jumped onto their four-poster beds, pulling back the curtains and pulling out boxes of candy and sweets from every corner of the room. Frank spoke up, pulling his pajamas from the drawer.

"I've never taken Muggle Studies, but all that stuff Lily talked about was kind of cool. I mean, muggles really get big metals boats to fly in the air?"

"Airplanes," Remus corrected, already in his pajamas and taking back his box of beans from Peter.

Peter scowled, thought for a second and then said, "Sirius, if you didn't want to be an Auror, what would you do with yourself after Hogwarts?"  
"Easy, I'd open a nightclub."

The five boys took this time to stare at Sirius.

"Merlin," James said coolly, "that would be great."

"Yeah, you know that old muggle department store down the road from Grimmauld Place…" James nodded, knowing that no one else knew what Sirius was talking about. "Well, it's the perfect place for my club. I've already thought of the name." And with a twirl of his wand, a great banner appeared and hung in the air in the center of the room. The letters glowed with a neon red.

"Blimey," said Peter.

"Wicked," commented Frank.

"Why have I never heard about this before?" whined James.

"Oh, Boy." Sighed Remus.

"Presenting," Sirius sang, brandishing his wand as the neon letters changed color. "Padfoot's Hot Spot: the Hottest Spot in London."

"And you have to wonder why you don't get all the girls…"

James jumped over to Remus's bed, knocking him sideways. "What, Moony? Don't believe in your best mate's biggest dream?"

Remus rebuffed. "Being an Auror is a dream, you marrying Evans is a dream, but…" he squinted his eyes against the violent colors lighting up the room. "This is pure insanity. I expect you would want us to leave our perfectly legitimate jobs and come work with you…?"

"Of course," Sirius jumped, breaking the spell. The banners faded away and the room went dark again. They all laughed, conjuring images of James on a guitar and Peter on drums, Lily, Alice and Emmeline serenading on stage and Sirius on the bar. "And we'd have free Butterbeer for every Gryffindor…."

The boys eventually began to dose off. James pulled off his glasses and placed them beside his wand on the night stand. He thought of they way Remus had called his love for Lily a dream when every time he saw her, he had to pinch himself to make sure it was real. James remembered cursing Peter's snoring in the next bed over, but the rest of the night was lost in dreams.

**Thanks for reading---I'll keep it coming. Suggestions welcomed.**


	4. The Set Up

**Thanks for the suggestions, keep them coming.**

**Disclaimer: Non possum mihi scribere characteres similares JK Rowling.**

Chapter 4: Set Up

It was the day after last final feast of the year. The famous foursome raved about their sixth year on the way down to the Hogwarts Express. Sirius assured James that he'd passed his Charms exam, Remus was glad to escape his prefect duties for the summer, and Peter was going on and on about the excellent grade he had received on his essay on Grindelwald and the rising Dark Lord. The four waved to Frank and Alice as they passed by; James a bit jealous that the couple would be spending their holiday together in the south of France. To their right, Emmeline and Lily were consoling a quite tearful Mary.

"I don't see why you're crying; we're going to see each other again next term."

"No, it's not that. It's just that next year's our last at Hogwarts."

The boys laughed at the girls' sensitivity and walked fast towards the train, whispering about how they couldn't wait for their final year.

Thirty minutes later, the train gave a whistle and began to move. Hogwarts castle grew smaller and smaller as the four found a compartment and slammed the door, sinking comfortably into the cushioned seats, but a second later they heard a knock at the door, and Lily pulled it back.

She nodded politely to Peter and Sirius, glared at James, and then turned to Remus.

"Remus, you know the prefects are supposed to meet up front. The Heads want us to give them a yearly overview."

Sirius made puppy-eyes as Remus slowly got up from his seat. "I'll be right back," he said, and turned, shutting the door softly behind him.

Remus took a quick glance down the hall; no one else seemed to be up and about…. What was Lily—?

Lily yanked him into a compartment a few doors down. In the compartment were Frank and Alice, as well as Mary and Emmeline, and they all had wide smiles on their faces.

"Lily, what is going on? What about the prefects meeting?"

Franks laughed, rolling his eyes. "There is none, silly. We need to talk to you."

"Me? About what?" Remus looked shiftily between the two girls. He instinctively wondered whether they knew about his "furry little problem", but they seemed too calm.

Alice finally lifted her head from Frank's shoulder, and looking quickly to Lily for permission, said, "We need to talk about Lily and James."

"Yeah," Lily added quickly, crossing her arms. "If a relationship between me and Potter is ever going to work out, I'm going to need you to deflate his head every few seconds."

They were all laughing nervously, but Remus still stood in the doorway, his mouth lay slightly open.

Emmeline straightened up. "I think Alice had finally convinced Lily to give James a chance. Her theory is that he might act a bit more mature over the summer," and she smirked over at Alice as if this was a very stupid theory indeed. "You know, without his friends always pumping him up with horrible ideas, no offense, Remus."

Remus realized his mouth was still slightly open, and closed it quickly.

"You know, Sirius spends ever summer with James. There's no way you could separate the two."

Intuition flickered in Lily's emerald eyes. "Okay…well why don't you invite Sirius to spend the summer with you, and I'll have James all to myself."

Remus gulped audibly and turned to leave.

Alice jumped up in her seat, nearly knocking Frank over sideways. "Wait! Don't say anything to Sirius, definitely not Sirius. Lily will tell them later, so you just act like you've just spent the ten most boring minutes of your life discussing this year's broomstick policy with Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Black." The threatening look in Alice's eye made Remus take an extra step back, hitting the window before running back to his compartment.

Even before Remus opened the door, he could hear Sirius laughing loudly at some unheard joke.

"…and then Lily said 'Go to hell, Black,' and I said 'Gladly. I'll see you there,' and she totally flipped. For a second I thought she was going to have a meltdown, right there in the middle of Charms!" The laughter was slowly ebbing as Remus took his seat.

"So what'd your perfect prefects talk about this time? Ten more ways to snuff out fun?"

"Yeah," said Remus shakily, completely understanding why Lily saw James as an immature arse.

A second later, Emmeline appeared in the doorway. "Um…" she began nervously, stealing glances back down the hall. "Peter, could I see you for a second?"

Peter nearly jumped out of his chair at the sound of his name, and after quickly looking to James to see if he was okay to leave, he left with Emmeline, quite confused.

"What was that all about?" asked Sirius, and even before he'd finished speaking, Alice was at the door, looking quite flustered at having to separate from her dear Frank for even a few minutes. "Um," she spoke, "Frank says there's a doxy in his suitcase and wants you to come check it out."

Sirius laughed. "How does he know if I even know what a doxy is?" And Alice flushed red.

"I don't know," she almost screamed, "But what am I supposed to tell his cold dying body after he's been bitten? That Sirius Black couldn't help because he's too stupid for his own good?" And without even glancing at James for permission, he jumped out his seat and followed and an angry-looking Alice out.

There were only two boys left in the compartment. One hazel eyes boy looking completely stupefied, and one Remus Lupin, biting his lip in an attempt to hold back laughter. Just when he thought he was going to lose it, Mary swung around the door, beckoning him into the hallway. "Hey Lupe, can I talk to you a second about holiday?" She winked and licked her lips, putting on quite a show. "I was wondering…" she said slowly, then turned to James as if he was just about to hear something indecent, and yanked Remus from the compartment. The two could be heard laughing down the hall.

"What – the – _hell_?" yelled James, frightening the second year girls in the compartment beside him. Had he not just seen his three best mates stolen from under him? Where was _his_ random excuse to leave the compartment—?

And there she was; just as he envisioned her in his dreams: hand on hips, pouty, and with emerald eyes glaring daggers in his direction.

"You know we can all hear you, halfway down the train, Potter."

"Hmph," spoke James, collapsing back into his seat, but straightening back up as Lily closed the door behind her. They were alone. In a train compartment.

"Oh, you know," said Lily, taking her hands off her hips and waving them in the air. "Lucius went on about how no one ever docks points from their own house and Bellatrix raved about how she didn't care anymore because she'd technically graduated already, and then that Hufflepuff Smith wished us all luck in the running for Head Boy and Head Girl next year. And then _Remus Lupin_ put up his hands an decided that we should go out, and everyone agreed, and then we left. Awfully boring, really."

James, who had stopped paying attention after 'Bellatrix', met Lily's eyes and quickly asked, "What did you say?" He was answered by Sirius Black, slamming open the door, quickly followed by Frank, Alice, Remus, Peter, Emmeline, and Mary.

"Moony's a bloody liar! There was no prefects meeting, and there's no doxy!" Sirius barked, settling into a seat haughtily, letting the other squeeze in behind him, pushing Lily and James together.

"What the hell, Sirius, _what the hell_? Can't keep your mouth shut for a second, can you?" Alice hissed from her awkward position, scrunched up against Sirius's back.

"W-wait," said James, "are you yanking my tail, is this some crazy set up? Are you all in on this?"

"I wasn't," squeaked Peter from beneath Emmeline. "I was kidnapped. She tried to knock me out."

"Oh, stop overreacting,"

"I can't believe Sirius didn't want to help me, I mean, it was a _doxy_! Did you see how big it was?" Frank growled, pressed up against the glass of the door, and Remus double over – or tried to – brining the attention back to Lily and James.

"Oi, I think Evans just asked out Potter!" And the loud sounds of the eight people trying hopelessly to sit comfortably in a compartment made for four silenced.

"Wait, she did?" James blinked, confused, and they all looked at him. "I mean, of course she did, of course she did."

And the Sirius said, "Dude, that's so uncool, a girl just asked you out. I thought it was your dream to ask _her_ out.

James tried to swing at Sirius, but instead hit Emmeline, Frank, and Alice. "That was _not_ my dream!"

"Of course it was, you told me all about it: there were flowers and a fog machine…"

Another badly thrown punch hit Peter square in the jaw and he howled in pain.

"I'm waiting for an answer, James," and he could tell that for the first time, Lily was being serious.

"Y-yeah," was James's brilliant answer: the most pathetic sound to come out of his mouth in a long time.

Nevertheless, she grabbed him from under Sirius and gave him an awkward kiss on the cheek.

There was an off-toned chorus of _awww_ and a squeal from Peter, broken by a loud knock on the glass, making Frank wince.

"Can somebody get the door?" said Emmeline.

"I don't think anyone's in any position to get the door—" Sirius began, but the door slid open from the outside, and Frank fell face-first out into the hallway with a loud crack as something broke. A girl with a brown clipboard and straggly black hair stepped to the side as Frank howled, clutching his nose.

"I suppose," she scowled, "that these are the Gryffindor sixth years…ah yes, such valor, such dignity," Bellatrix sneered. "Yes, I think I see my dear cousin Sirius, I _think_ he's under that pudgy-looking girl, I _think_."

"_Yes_," said Sirius with a long, drawn-out drone that would have seemed condescending except for the position he was in.

"I'm here to fetch R. Lupin and L. Evans," she said, looking down at her clipboard. "The prefects meeting started fifteen minutes ago."

Lupin threw his arm out to reach the door, causing the people above him to tumble to the ground. Lily, after slowly drawing her hand out of James's clutch, was able to step over her friends and reach the door, brushing off her robes. James blew her a kiss as the compartment door closed on Franks legs, and as she started down the hall after the Head Girl, she whispered her thanks to Remus who shook it off with the slight of his hand and a quick chuckle.

"Hurry up, Gyffindorks," Bellatrix sneered, the only facial expression she seemed capable of making these days. "Lucius is just finishing up broomstick policy, and then we have to collectively come up with ten ways to snuff out fun next year…."

**Wasn't that a riot? It was fun to play How-Many-Students-Can-Fit-In-A-Train-Compartment, and poor Frank. And wasn't Remus such a good little helper? Read and Review, and alicecullengirl: was that enough Remus for you? –PoM**


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